It's not easy to define "experience design"
and other, related, terms and these definitions are definitely in flux,
but for now...

An Evolving Glossary of Experience Design:

Design
Design is a set of fields for problem-solving that uses user-centric approaches
to understand user needs (as well as business, economic, environmental,
social, and other requirements) to create successful solutions that solve
real problems. Design is often used as a process to create real change within
a system or market. Too often, Design is defined only as visual problem
solving or communication because of the predominance of graphic designers.
In other fields and contexts, Design might only refer to Fashion Design
or Interior Design. However, a recognition of the similarities between all
design disciplines shows that the larger definition for Design operates
at a higher level and across many media.

Design Strategy
Like Experience Strategy, Design Strategy is more concerned
with the ability of a company or organization to respond and perform well
in the long term, rather than for a particular design project or goal. Design
Strategy is the field and approach of developing strategic policies, usually
at a high level within a company or organization, in order to better realize
the ongoing creation of successful Design created for users,
audiences, participants, or customers. Design Strategy is more concerned
with outward market forces and how these impact an organization's ability
to perform and serve its customers successfully, than with the creation
of individual experiences (which would be the domain of Experience
Design). It is also concerned with the internal organization, structure,
culture, processes and values within an organization that allow it to successfully
create experiences and respond to both market and customer needs. Ideally,
there should be no difference between Experience Strategy
and Design Strategy but, in practice, Design Strategy is most often performed
only in a visual fields and the wider aspects of experiences are rarely
addressed.

Emotions
These are the feelings we experience and attach to events, people, products,
and services. They describe our emotional attachment and understanding of
people, things, and events and often form the basis of our "lifestyles."
They are one point on the spectrum of meaning.

Experience
The sensation of interaction with a product, service, or event, through
all of our senses, over time, and on both physical and cognitive levels.
The boundaries of an experience can be expansive and include the sensorial,
the symbolic, the temporal, and the meaningful.

Experience Design
Experience Design is an approach to creating successful experiences for
people in any medium. This approach includes consideration and design in
all 3 spatial dimensions, over time, all 5 common senses, and interactivity,
as well as customer value, personal meaning, and emotional context. Experience
Design is not merely the design of Web pages or other interactive media
or on-screen digital content. Designed experiences can be in any medium,
including spatial/environmental installations, print products, hard products,
services, broadcast images and sounds, live performances and events, digital
and online media, etc. More...

Experience Strategy
Experience Strategy is the field and approach of developing strategic policies,
usually at a high level within a company or organization, in order to better
realize the ongoing creation of successful experiences created for users,
audiences, participants, or customers. Experience Strategy is more concerned
with outward market forces and how these impact an organization's ability
to perform and serve its customers successfully, than with the creation
of individual experiences (which would be the domain of Experience
Design). It is also concerned with the internal organization, structure,
culture, processes and values within an organization that allow it to successfully
create experiences and respond to both market and customer needs.

Industrial Design
Industrial Design is the field of developing physical solutions to meet
a particular need. These physical solutions might include products, vehicles,
machinery, and even environments.

Information Architecture
Information Architecture is a field and approach to designing clear, understandable
communications by giving care to structure, context, and presentation of
data and information (see Interaction Design below). There
is no difference between the two terms. Some designers refer to information
Architecture as concerning "high-level" issues and Information
Design as concerning "low-level" or visual issues but it is not
possible to separate the two in developing clear communications, regardless
of medium.

Information Design
Information Design is a field and approach to designing clear, understandable
communications by giving care to structure, context, and presentation of
data and information. As a field, its principles relate to all communications
products and experiences, regardless of medium (print, broadcast, digital,
online, etc.). Information Design is, primarily, concerned with clarity
(instead of simplicity) and understanding. More...

Interaction
Interaction is a response experience in which both actor and reactor are
engaged in a mutually affecting experience. This means that the system is
comprised of two interactive partners. In the case of interactive media,
one partner may only be mildly interactive (such as a computer) and only
programmatically so. While most of the computer actor's actions are the
result of predetermined programming, if the variations are ample enough,
it can be said that this actor is interactive (making it an interactor).
Mostly, two humans (being inherently interactive) will create an interactive
system or experience simple by conversing.

Interaction Design
Interaction Design is a field and approach to designing interactive experiences.
These could be in any medium (such as live events or performances, products,
services, etc.) and not only digital media. Interactive experiences, necessarily,
require time as an organizing principle 9though not exclusively) and Interactive
Design is concerned with a user, customer, audience, or participant's experience
flow through time. Interactivity should not be confused with animation in
which objects may move on a screen. Interactivity is concerned with being
part of the action of a system or performance and not merely watching the
action passively. More...

Interactor
A term for an interactive participant in an interactive experience. Other
terms could include: user, participant, actor, audience.

Graphic Design
Graphic Design is an older term for the field of Visual Design.
This term refers specifically to the use of graphic media (such as color,
symbol, and type) to communicate a style or expression. In practice, however,
Visual Design is a better term since most Graphic Designers
are skilled in more than this narrow scope of visuals and graphic elements
are only a subset of the possible visual components applicable to visual
expression.

Meaning
Meaning is a distinct level of cognitive significance that represents how
people understand the world around them--literally, the reality they construct
in their minds that explains the world they experience. Meaning is the deepest
level of this understanding and is distinct from Values,
Emotions, and functional or financial benefits:

Meaning (our sense of
reality)

Values (our sense of
identity)

Emotions

Value (our sense of
what something is "worth," financial benefits)

Features (functional
benefits)

Sensorial Design
Sensorial Design is a term used to include the presentation of an experience
in all senses. For example, Visual Design only covers
visual expression and presentation to the visual sense. Audio Design includes
the creation of music, sound effects, and vocals to communicate and entertain
in the aural sense (hearing). Likewise, all of the other human senses (touch,
smell, taste, etc.) are elements of an experience that can be designed.

Service Design
Service Design is the field concerned with the development of services to
meet specific needs. These services may make use of different communication
media (including online, telephone, in-person, etc.), may or may not be
automated, and may or may not use products as part of the service experience.
A service usually includes a Service Ecology that allows
the service operate successfully.

Service Ecology
A Service Ecology is a system of interactions and actors that, together,
create a sustainable and successful service. Service Ecologies often include
several companies or organizations that specialize in delivering one part
of the total service. These may or may not be distinct to the user of the
service. Successful Service Ecologies must realistically allow each company
or organization to create and realize value for their part in the service
in order for the Ecology to be both successful (from a user perspective)
and sustainable (from a system perspective).

Product Design
A sub-field of Industrial Design, Product Design is a field that uses various
processes to develop physical solutions to specific needs. Products might
make use of electronics but are not required to. They may be mass produced,
custom-made, or customized.

User Experience
The overall experience, in general or specifics, a user, customer, or audience
member has with a product, service, or event. In the Usability field, this
experience is usually defined in terms of ease-of-use. However, the experience
encompasses more than merely function and flow, but the understanding compiled
through all of the senses.

Values
These are the significant beliefs we hold about how ourselves and others
should behave in the world. They govern our judgements and understandings
about our own and others' identities. They are one point on the spectrum
of meaning.

Visual Design
Visual Design is the field of developing visual materials to create an experience.
Visual Design spans the fields of Graphic Design, Illustration, Typography,
Layout, Color Theory, Iconography, Signage, Photography, etc. and any medium,
including online, broadcast, print, outdoor, etc. Visual Design is concerned
with the elements of visual expression and style. It is often an integral
step in Information Design and other communication design
disciplines.